The Ray Rice Elevator Video

An hour later ... (went to the gym).

Anyway, absolve is the wrong word in the point I tried to make. Is less of a monster any better?

If we're ever going to have that conversation! about domestic abuse -- like the conversation we're supposed to be having about guns, suicide, drugs etc etc etc -- we can't base it on one dude's punch (and drag). There were underlying issues and symptoms leading up to it, and not just 2 bottles of hard liquor. What if she comes out and says she'd been riding his ass for a month, and they'd been fighting like cats and dogs behind closed doors, and the punch was the manifestation of so much tension?

And no, that still wouldn't excuse what he did to her face with his fist.

I guess the question is, does a man hitting a woman (or killing her) nullify all of the symptoms in every single case of domestic violence?

And that's not even taking into account woman-on-man domestic violence.

 

This is true. It was amazing how quickly the Incognito story went away as people waited to for the investigation to be finished. By the time it came out, few cared.

I don't know that it will be the same way with this one, but it wouldn't surprise me if that's what happens. I think unless there is definitive proof that Goodell saw the video and lied about it, he survives.

 

I don't care what was going on behind the scenes. I don't care if she is the biggest bitch on the planet. He spit on her multiple times, punched her twice, knocked her out and stood there like he didn't give a shit as she was motionless on the ground and then dragged her out of the elevator.

 

Figured it was time to put forward one of the good guys: James Brown.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/24705864/james-brown-delivers-strong-anti-domestic-violence-message

I missed what he had to say when Jovan Belcher's murder-suicide happened. Anybody have a link to what he said back then?

 

Sorry, it's one thing to feel that way, RJ, but you have to care what was going on behind the scenes.

For years when I was little, my parents fought and screamed like heavyweight champions. Many nights screaming and name-calling led to near-violent confrontations in the hallways. They spit on each other. Money was pretty much at the root of it. I've shared this before here years ago, but my mom teased the shit out of my dad because he stutters -- teased him in front of my two brothers and me at the dinner table. She was relentless and brutal about it. I wish he would have popped her in the mouth just once to make her stop. He never did but that doesn't make him some kind of hero; and I wouldn't have blamed him had he lifted his hand to her. That doesn't mean I think men should punch women in the face.

We're talking about human emotion.

James Brown opened the door to conversation about domestic violence. Shouldn't we be examining why it happens instead of just reacting to the final result?

And yeah, I get that it's much more complex than that. But you DO have to care about the root causes and why things manifest the way they do.

 

The elements of provocation, even, one might say.

 

Beat me to it, Dick. Sounds like Xan is trying to get to the root cause of why women cause men to beat them.

 

As Olbermann said in his comment yesterday, the Rice female jerseys are still being sold on NFL.com for just under $100.

 

Hey, Dick, we can turn it around and use Hope Solo as an example if that makes you happy.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/hope-solo-breaks-silence-domestic-violence-arrest/story?id=24339185

Booze. Emotions. Nothing could possibly go wrong. Just an isolated incident, right?

Re: bigpern ... No, it isn't about that and you're just being a putz trying to frame it that way.

You're right, domestic violence just happens. One second life is lovey-dovey, the next second KABOOM! Just because.

 

Well, there's obviously still a market for them.

 

That could be very true.

It also could be a gross exaggeration. Such is the case when trying to read people's thoughts from a fuzzy video.